4x4 8v rebuild

[andeben]

Hi all

Some of you may have been following my progress in Norway with my 89 Vectra A C20NE 4X4. It’s possible I’ve now spent as much time working on it as driving it but I can say whenever I have driven it I’ve enjoyed myself. I think it was in early 2014 the head gasket blew and despite several attempts at fixing this I still couldn’t stop the oil and water mixing. Maybe the block was cracked, maybe the head was warped I still don’t know, but might investigate if I get round to it. The car stood until this winter when I started the job of transferring a 95 donor C20NE into it. I’d like the car to be a daily driver basically although it does suffer a bit of rust underneath and still smells a bit damp. In addition my goal has been to try to make an Opel club ice driving event this coming weekend – February 6th. If I don’t make it my next goal is to have it ready for some winter Autoslaloms which should also be entertaining – I have a ford Puma which I do Autoslaloms with in the Summer months.

Anyway, I thought I would start this thread to document a bit of what I’ve done so far and what ends up happening, at least over this winter season. Pictures to follow once photobucket is working again.

Cheers
Ben

[humbucker]

Hi Ben. Sounds cool (geddit?!). I look forward to seeing pictures. Damn Photobucket!

Post a thread up about your Puma in the non-Cavalier projects section. It sounds like an interesting motor.

[andeben]

I had a round inside with mildew remover before I started as there was mould in places. I've since had a round with a steam cleaner as well. I'm hoping once it's been driven a bit, a few more steam cleans and the smell will go! We'll see.



Pic of one of the rear calipers. All the brakes looked like this with similarly nasty discs.



And here's the engine, gearbox and transfer box removed. Spot the nasty oily water mess I still have nightmares about

[andeben]

Donor engine out:



Black Diamond stage I clutch went in. I also kept the flywheel from the 4x4.



Donor engine with new timing belt, sump gasket and rocker cover gasket joined up to F28 with new release bearing and original transfer box (previously locked). I cleaned up the worst of the gunk from the engine but decided not to use a lot of time painting and restoring although I would have like to really. The car's going to be driven on salt laden roads so that and time constraints played a part.

[andeben]

Engine in and mounted. Ready for connecting up (easy bit right? )

[andeben]

Rear brakes were rebuilt as much as possible. The dust plates were (and are) still quite rusted and nasty but I managed to sort the issue I had with one of them. New handbrake shoes and springs went in along with new discs. I only managed to get 3 of the 4 caliper pistons out and, still a bit concerned about time, ended up buying one new caliper. For the rebuilt caliper I also ended up keeping the original pistons. You don't seem to be able to get new 33mm pistons - at least I couldn't find them. I also almost had an argument with one of the parts stores over here who told me these cars were never delivered with 33mm rear caliper pistons - I wished he was right but didn't agree

[andeben]

Front calipers rebuilt with new pistons and seals. Goodridge braided hoses (on front only for the moment as the rear ones were incorrect). Discs are Brembo Max with standard ATE pads.



So just the entire rest of the car remaining in terms of making things look nice!

[andeben]

I had an issue with getting the car to start and was tearing my hair out trying to work out what I'd done. It turned out that the loom connections for the throttle position sensor and crank angle sensor were routed differently between the donor and the 4x4 - and, assuming I'd managed to loose a cable, I had connected these up the wrong way. Separate thread on this and my painful journey to enlightenment!

So, having finally gotten it to start I made the last push and got the car on the road this sunday with 'test plates', and delivered it to the garage for it's EU Kontroll (i.e. MoT). I'd forgotten how good it is to drive. The piper exhaust sounds good and the grip is also good. I got a few looks from people - not sure if it was because of the test plates, the noise or because they'd never seen a Vectra A before. All good anyway.

[andeben]

Having delivered there were a few things I was worried about, so wasn't really expecting it to pass straight away. I phoned the garage this morning and asked them to take a look at the fuel pump bracket, the auxiliary drive belt and flush the cooling system. We agreed they'd do the control, and they'd take it from there. Control being tomorrow but I mentioned I was trying to get the car back on the road this week to make the ice event on Saturday.

So, to my surprise, they phoned me back later - they'd done the control today and the car passed! (with no minor fails at all)



They switched out the pump bracket which they had in stock (first time I've heard of that), flushed and filled the cooling system and swapped the aux belt for the right length (bit strange as I hadn't changed that but might explain why I was struggling with it). I'll have a look when I get the car back tomorrow. I'll also pick up the license plates tomorrow which are held by the Norwegian DVLA when you take a car off the road.

So, in theory, I'm good to go for the ice track driving this weekend. Amazing. I never really thought I was going to be done in time. All being well I'll follow up with what happens next.

Cheers
Ben

[andeben]

Hi Ben. Sounds cool (geddit?!). I look forward to seeing pictures. Damn Photobucket!

Post a thread up about your Puma in the non-Cavalier projects section. It sounds like an interesting motor.

I do get that one. Part of the challenge has been the temperature this winter

Can add some info about the Puma. It's mostly standard as I compete in the standard class. Now that the Vectra's on the road I need to focus on the Puma - it's my 'official' hobby and is also off the road (needs to be road legal to compete).

[TurboDan]

Great work

[andeben]

Thanks Dan

Well, I made it! Was about eight hours driving in total up the mountains and back plus three long sessions out on the ice track. The car was good all the way. I kept up with most of the cars running normal spiked winter tyres but not the guys running rally tyres.

I made a video for those who are interested. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jc25RvG3mA

Was absolutely worth all the hard work and frustration. I'm now more or less using the car as a daily driver - a few things to sort out but nothing too major.

Cheers

[humbucker]

How cool is that video?! I'll share it on the club Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/CavalierOwners/

Nice work!


Link

[iangsi]

Looks like you had a great time

[andeben]

Thanks guys. Yeh, it was great fun Really glad I made it